PRR Project

Summary

Psychology has undergone significant paradigm shifts throughout its relatively brief history. The last major shift started about 50 years ago and proposed that Psychology needed to focus on mental representations and the mind to understand human behavior. This Cognitive Revolution further planted the seeds for another shift – Psychology, as the science of the mind, needed a neuroscientific perspective. Cognitive Neuroscience – i.e., the study of how the mind is instantiated in the brain using neuroimaging techniques – resulted from this push.We propose hiring an Assistant Professor working on Cognitive Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience (henceforth Cognitive Neuroscience) to further establish this area at CINEICC. The profile we are looking for is of an individual working on any of the major areas of cognition (e.g., vision, language, attention, memory, decision making, social cognition, motor processes), using neuroscientific methodologies (e.g., fMRI, EEG) to address these issues. The candidate will put forth a strong research program focusing on developing cognitive models based and tested on neuroscientific data, contributing major hypothesis on cognitive and neural processing, and developing innovative methodologies and analysis pipelines for unravelling how cognition is implemented neurally – i.e., the candidate will strongly contribute to the field’s understanding of the cognitive area of choice. The ideal candidate should have demonstrated research potential as evidenced by a strong publication track-record; show promise of developing and maintaining an active, externally-funded research program; show commitment to supervising students; and show the ability to work collaboratively within CINEICC. Such profile provides the basis for advancing our understanding and mapping of mind-brain relationships, and potentially allow for grounded applied solutions to future societal problems.The emergence of Cognitive Neuroscience has completely transformed the landscape of psychological research worldwide. The research focus of the large majority of the faculty (about 70%) at the highest-ranked Departments of Psychology in the world (cf. Shanghai Ranking for Psychology) is on Cognitive Neuroscience topics (including developmental, affective and social cognition). This is also the case in departments and research centers in non-Widening European countries (e.g., Germany, Italy).Psychology adopted Cognitive Neuroscience as one of its major paradigms because: 1) Cognitive Neuroscience is the major contributor for understanding how the human brain generates behavior and mental experiences; 2) it has evolved dramatically methodologically, providing major scientific innovation; 3) it is inherently interdisciplinary (e.g., computer science and AI) and provides cross-sectorial sought-after skills for researchers in training; and 4) it can ignite translational research (e.g., better definition of biomarkers of prodromal mental health issues, by providing typical neural and cognitive patterns and pinpoint deviances from these patterns).The current research landscape of the major Psychology departments and research centers in Portugal is, however, bluntly different: the percentage of tenured researchers with research interests in Cognitive Neuroscience is dramatically low (~12%). This is, in fact, a widespread signature of Psychology departments and research centers in Widening European countries (e.g., Greece, Romania).In order to address this gap between Widening and non-Widening European countries, CINEICC and the local Psychology Department (FPCE-UC) were awarded the ERA (European Research Area) Chair project CogBooster, led by Alfonso Caramazza. CogBooster is set to help create a strong and permanent line of research in Cognitive Neuroscience at the host. In fact, Cognitive Neuroscience has been growing at the host: we obtained the first ERC grant in Portugal for Psychology (ContentMAP; FPCE-UC also hosts the only other Psychology ERC in Portugal, also in the field of Cognitive Neuroscience); we have been consistently publishing in major journals (e.g., Current Biology, Journal of Neuroscience); a central part of the strategic research plan at CINEICC focuses on understanding how cognitive maps are represented in the brain; and, most importantly, we have attracted outstanding young researchers in the field to come to CINEICC under non-tenured fixed-term contracts (i.e., FCT individual CEEC) – 5 out of the 12 individual CEEC grantees at CINEICC (about 40%) work in Cognitive Neuroscience. This figure is dramatically different when we look at researchers with tenured contracts at CINEICC – only ~12% work in Cognitive Neuroscience.Thus, this profile is highly relevant for CINEICC (and FPCE-UC) under the strategic scientific plans of the center, and of the goals set by ERA under CogBooster – i.e., that of creating permanent positions in line with the increase in Cognitive Neuroscience research at the host.